Eco-Evo-Devo: The Environmental Regulation Of Development, Health, And Evolution

Document Type

Book

Publication Date

2026

Published In

Eco-Evo-Devo: The Environmental Regulation Of Development, Health, And Evolution

Abstract

Eco-Evo-Devo introduces advanced undergraduate and graduate students to the emerging field of ecological and evolutionary developmental biology (or simply “eco-evo-devo”). This eco-evo-devo exemplifies a new biology centered on the relationship between organisms and their environments. This new discipline examines how the interplay between genes and the environment shapes how organisms develop, how organisms, genes, and environmental agents interact with each other, and co-evolve. In this new view of life, what is transmitted across generations is not merely a genome but the developmental means to generate phenotypes that match current or even create future environmental conditions. This means that development, ecology, and evolution cannot be studied in isolation, but in partnerships. Indeed, the mechanisms of evolution integrate and entangle ecology and development into webs of symbiosis (how most living things function, develop, and evolve as consortia of different organisms), plasticity (how organisms can produce different phenotypes depending on environmental conditions), and inheritance (how living things transmit various factors—including those acquired from lifetime experience—that can influence their offspring’s development). As the authors describe, the environment is not always benign: embryonic exposure to various living and nonliving agents can cause congenital anomalies seen at birth or adult-onset diseases later in life. Furthermore, only by merging development, ecology, and evolution can one comprehend the biodiversity crisis. In short, Eco-Evo-Devo brings students new perspectives on living things by describing how the merger of ecology, evolution, and development can transform our understanding of life as profoundly as the discovery of cells, genes, or evolution.

Keywords

biodiversity crisis, developmental plasticity, ecological developmental biology, endocrine disruptors, environmental disease causes, evolution and development, nongenetic inheritance, phenotypic plasticity, symbiosis, transitions in individuality

Published By

Oxford University Press

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